...Obama is using a sublime approach as he fulfills the role of "good cop" with regard to islamist paramilitary thugs in afghanistan and pakistan...as we indigos predicted the bush agenda/doctrine is staying the course with regard to the operations against "crescenting guerrillas"....more drones are being deployed as operations continue in waziristan and the surrounding region...

aye am laughing at how the dovesellers are quiet now that bush is out of power...but in reality...obama is taking over where bush did the heavy lifting...

oh...and for the dovesellers...the kurdish people are thriving in northern iraq now that the military dictator saddam hussein and his cruel sons are dead...now folks are starting to realize why mesopoetamia was so important...bush was right...

Evolving US strategy widens assault on terrorists

By MATT APUZZOThe Associated Press Friday, February 12, 2010; 9:36 AM

WASHINGTON -- In the early months of his presidency, President Barack Obama's national security team singled out one man from its list of most-wanted terrorists, Baitullah Mehsud, the ruthless leader of the Pakistani Taliban. He was to be eliminated.

Mehsud was Pakistan's public enemy No. 1 and its most feared militant, responsible for a string of bombings and assassination attempts. But while Mehsud carried out strikes against U.S. forces overseas and had a $5 million bounty on his head, he had never been the top priority for U.S. airstrikes, something that at times rankled Pakistan.

"The decision was made to find him, to get him and to kill him," a senior U.S. intelligence official said, recalling weeks and months of "very tedious, painstaking focus" before an unmanned CIA aircraft killed Mehsud in August at his father-in-law's house near Pakistan's border with Afghanistan.

It was not the first airstrike on Obama's watch, but it marked the first major victory in his war on terrorism, a campaign the administration believes can be waged even more aggressively than its predecessor's. Long before he went on the defensive in Washington for his handling of the failed Christmas Day airline bombing, Obama had widened the list of U.S. targets abroad and stepped up the pace of airstrikes.

Advances in spy plane technology have made that easier, as has an ever-improving spy network that helped locate Mehsud and other terrorists. These would have been available to any new president. But Obama's counterterrorism campaign also relies on two sharp reversals from his predecessor, both of which were political gambles at home.

Obama's national security team believed that the president's campaign promise to pull U.S. troops out of Iraq would have a side benefit: freeing up manpower and resources to hunt terrorists in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Intelligence officials, lawmakers and analysts say that approach is showing signs of success.

Obama also has sought to reach out to Islamic allies and tone down U.S. rhetoric, a language shift that critics have argued revealed a weakness, in an effort to win more cooperation from countries like Yemen and Pakistan.

For example, though Pakistan officially objects to U.S. airstrikes within its border, following the Mehsud strike, the U.S. has seen an increase in information sharing from Pakistani officials, which has helped lead to other strikes, according to the senior law enforcement official. He and other current and former officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive security matters.

Pakistan's cooperation is key to U.S. counterterrorism efforts because much of the best intelligence still comes from Pakistan's intelligence agency. Ensuring that cooperation has been a struggle for years, in part because Pakistan wants greater control over the drone strikes and its own fleet of aircraft, two things the U.S. has not allowed.

"The efforts overseas are bearing fruit," said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a strident critic of Obama's domestic counterterrorism policies who said Obama has at times shown himself even more aggressive than Bush in his use of force overseas. "I give them generally high marks for their efforts to capture and kill terrorists in Pakistan, and they're pushing the envelope in Yemen."

CIA drones, the remote-controlled spy planes that can hunt terrorists from miles overhead, are responsible for many of the deaths. Drone strikes began increasing in the final months of the Bush administration, thanks in part to expanded use of the Reaper, a newer generation aircraft with better targeting systems and greater, more accurate firepower.

Obama has increased their use even further. A month after Mehsud's death, drone strikes in Pakistan killed Najmiddin Jalolov, whose Islamic Jihad Union claimed responsibility for bombings in 2004 at U.S. and Israeli embassies in Uzbekistan. Senior al-Qaida operatives Saleh al-Somali and Abdallah Sa'id were killed in airstrikes in December. And Mehsud's successor at the Pakistani Taliban, Hakimullah Mehsud, died following an attack last month.

I do agree with your statement. Because, its hard to fight a war. The new war is essentially, blood is thicker then water, type of war. There is no borders with this war. I'm not anti islamic or anything, i personally believe, that bin laden has some deep personal problems with insecurity. He is a mad man with lots of money. His family built up a name, and he is using it to recruit memebers to his cause. My question is what is his true motivation?

the ever condescending hiliary clinton is someone who we will not have to worry about as far as becoming the first female commander in chief...more like sarah palin will take that honor...ha ha....aye personally think around christmas 2012 it will be president romney...

however...clinton is giving it good to the pakistanis to fork over osama bin laden...aye would hope that dr. ayman al zawahiri is turned over to us...his head on a plate will be just fine...enough said.

over all that indigo agenda couldn't be working better...the conservative democrats have handed over much of what we needed...and the next election will put more conservative politicians in office...

we need to get this country back on the right track...the media has fuched things up pretty good...

anytime we see liberal media frustration is a good thing and 8 years of bush and 1+ years of obama and their national security policies have helped to throw a monkeywrench in the liberal propaganda machine...

We need to keep jobs here in america. Who said we wanted these jobs outsourced? It was more like by force. Ok we are cutting down, so here is a pink slip have good life. Then the job goes to another country.

sure...that is a convoluted issue...how about cell phones for the wrist...like male private part tracy had....we need more bottled water brands...corn based products are one wave of grain to ride and already listerine breath tabs have taken over the kit kats at kurdish convenience store checkout counters outside of the smaller trenton, nj. suburbs. muhuhaahaahaa!

what are your thoughts on the thriving kurds in northern mesopoetamia? Did you know that 10 years ago they were a subjugated people and now are on a socio-economic development treadmill moving only slightly slower than dubai development....

I wouldn't actually kill bin laden right away, I would get rid of his chain of command first. To isolate him on purpose.

bin laden is either dead or wasting away with kidney rot...he can't walk anymore...but dr. ayman al zawahiri is the man who needs to get bagged and tagged...he is nothing more than a wet dream stain on the scabies shite sheetheaded crescenting guerrillas that crevasse the waziristan landscape.